January 1, McCarthy sets sights on regaining House majority

House Minority leader Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) is leading the charge to regain the chamber’s majority in the 2022 midterm elections. McCarthy points to the retirement of Rep. Ron Kind (D-WI) as a potentially pivotal moment.

“When you sit back and you look and you want to pinpoint when was the bellwether, when was the moment in time that you truly felt that you knew that the majority was in play and you had the capability of winning – when Ron Kind said that he was retiring,” McCarthy said.

The GOP needs to regain five seats to obtain the House majority they lost in the 2018 midterms. McCarthy believes that more House Democrats will soon retire.

“Once you get past Thanksgiving and members go home, and they’re Democrats and they’ve been challenged before and they’re going to get beat up, Congress is not that great,” he said. “They’ve got new lines where they have to go meet new people and they’re still going to have the White House. They’re going to make a decision to retire, that’s the best time so they can go get another job. When we get that retirement number up higher, into double-digit figures, the whole thing becomes a different play.”